Regional dynamics will change the face of global healthcare by 2025.
North America is currently the largest healthcare market, followed by Europe. However, Asia (excluding Japan) is growing at 11.7% and will overtake Europe.
Japan, which is currently the fourth-largest market, will be overtaken by Latin America, growing at 10.4%. By 2025, regional shares in the healthcare market, from largest to smallest, will change to North America, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Japan and rest-of-world (RoW).
“Healthcare stakeholders will have to change their investment focus to target Asia, which holds the potential to become the largest healthcare market in the world if current growth rates hold,” said Frost & Sullivan Transformational Health Research Analyst Siddharth Shah. “Latin America also promises significant opportunities due to the rising population, high demand and growing middle class with disposable incomes.”
Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Vision 2025 - Future of Healthcare, explores the transformation expected in the global healthcare market, which will be worth $2.69 trillion in 2025.
Growth in the Asian market is primarily driven by India and China, with government funding schemes expected to add Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines to this list. In Latin America, growth is bolstered by an increase in private healthcare services and insurance penetration, and a sufficiently large working population to support the elderly.
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Europe will drop in ranks despite a few lucrative country markets, like Germany and Sweden. This is mainly due to the struggle in the remaining economies:
- Greece, Portugal and Spain are the worst affected by declining Euro
- UK is tackling Brexit and the decline of the pound
- Russia is dealing with political tensions.
However, Asia and Latin America also present difficulties for healthcare companies; there are regional differences in terms of cultural diversity, language heterogeneity, and affordability levels. Essentially, successful business strategies in North America and Europe will not be applicable for emerging regions.
“Despite the difficulties, Asia and Latin America cannot be overlooked if companies desire to grow faster than their competition,” stressed Shah. “To gain the edge, healthcare players must take the plunge, invest in these regions, find the right local partners, design custom strategies for each country, test them in pilots, and go large-scale.”